The ballast resistor gets alot of blame for things that it has nothing to do with.
As far as the distributor, I'd pull it, dismantle it, clean and lube it, replace the vac advance can and possibly the heavy advance spring with a lighter version reinstall and call it a day.
I just replaced the distributor in my 85 (slant 6) because that truck originally had lean burn, which i had to get rid of
Cuz it didn't run at all when I got it. Along with installing an ignition box very much like the one that you are wanting to get rid of. Runs and runs good for what it is. If yours was lean burn I'd agree with getting rid of that.